Synopsis:

By its nature, folk is ephemeral: tricky to define, hard to preserve and even more difficult to resurrect. But folk culture is all around us; sitting in our churches, swinging from our pubs and dancing through our streets, patiently waiting to be discovered, appreciated, saved and cherished.

In The Lost Folk, Lally MacBeth is on a mission to breathe new life into these rapidly disappearing customs. She reminds us that folk is for everyone, and does not belong to an imagined, halcyon past, but is constantly being drawn from everyday lives and communities. As well as looking at what folk customs have meant in Britain’s past, she shines a light on what they can and should mean as we move into the future – encouraging us to use the book as an inspiration, and become collectors and creators of our very own folk traditions.

Genre: Non-Fiction
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Pub Date: 16 July 2025

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I received this book as an ARC from the publisher.

Review:

I love folklore, as I am sure many of you know by now, so when Faber Books asked if I’d like to read an advance copy of ‘The Lost Folk’ by Lally MacBeth, you bet I jumped at the chance! I really encourage you to check out the final cover too, because it’s wonderful and really encapsulates the spirit of the book.

I was hooked from page one, and ended up down more internet rabbit-holes than I care to admit! Quite literally on page, I was off on a search for more information about Nelly, and have since acquired an extra book recommended to me by the author!

We explore folk from so many different angles, and there was so much that I had never even considered before. Traditionally, you probably think of folk as fairy stories and myths, but there’s a whole world of folk beyond that. From songs and dances to recipes, artwork, and even features like flowerbeds and church kneelers, each one is a part of the long and colourful history of folk.

I also particularly liked MacBeth’s focus on the folk elements that are often overlooked. This is often women’s crafts, and those of the migrant communities. The only unfortunate part of it all was that we couldn’t truly dive deeply into a lot of it, for otherwise the book would have been encyclopaedic!

MacBeth’s writing was wonderful, and you can feel just how passionate she is about the subject of folk. She travels the UK in search of stories, traditions and objects, and I really liked how we didn’t just get the ‘thing’, but we also had an exploration of how it all fitted into a culture, a village, the seasons and a way of life.

Living where I do in Cornwall, folk is quite literally all around me, and reading this has made me want to explore it as much as I can. If that’s not a sign to read this book, then I don’t know what is!